(Clearwisdom.net)
Teacher stated in, "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference,"
"When you encounter ordeals during your cultivation, you have got to cultivate yourself and look at yourself--that doesn't mean acknowledging the ordeals arranged by the old forces and trying to do well amidst the ordeals they've arranged, that's not the case. We negate even the very emergence of the old forces and everything that they've arranged; we don't even acknowledge their existence. We're fundamentally negating all of their things, and all of, and only, the things you do while negating and getting rid of them is mighty-virtue. It's not that you're cultivating amidst the ordeals they created. Rather, you are to walk your own path well while not acknowledging them, not even acknowledging the elimination of their ordeals' manifestations."
Faced with the severe interference occurring in Singapore recently, I had some unusual understandings that did not come easily after studying Teacher's recent lecture with my fellow practitioners. I'd like to share and discuss my understandings with more fellow practitioners.
Each and every practitioner among us has accumulated enormous amounts of karma and attachments during countless previous lives. The process of cultivation is the continuous elimination of karma and various attachments under the guidance of high-level principles in Dafa. It is a process of continuous ascension towards higher realms until reaching final consummation. In order for us to reach our cultivation goals, Teacher has arranged unique and different paths of cultivation for each Dafa disciple based on their own environment and their ability to endure. Teacher takes away our attachments bit by bit and piece-by-piece, so long as we have an unshakable main consciousness, and strong and abundant righteous thoughts. Regardless whether it is a tribulation related to illness karma or xinxing [mind nature, moral character] conflicts, they were all part of our cultivation path as arranged by Teacher. Teacher called these trials "tribulations." In Zhuan Falun, Teacher said,
"Accordingly, in your future cultivation practice you will run into all kinds of tribulations. How can you practice cultivation without these hardships?"
Teacher also talked about ordeals during earlier teachings of the Fa [universal law or principle], such as "Expounding on the Fa," Falun Buddha Fa Lecture at the Conference in Singapore, and Falun Buddha Fa Lecture at the Assistants' Fa Conference in Changchun. All mention of ordeals pointed to the interference in one's cultivation by the evil, instead of those trials arranged by Teacher for disciples' improvement. After the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, references to ordeals increased quite a bit in Fa lectures by Teacher.
We would have followed the course of cultivation as arranged by Teacher until consummation, were it not for the persecution imposed on us by the old forces. However, the involvement of the old forces made our situations far more complicated. The old forces arranged this persecution in order to destroy the beings that they did not care about anymore during the Fa rectification. In order to save sentient beings, we started to clarify the truth to the people all over the world. The old forces certainly wanted to undermine our effort to clarify the truth, but directly doing so would have violated even the Fa of the old universe. As such, the old forces needed to find excuses for them to do damage. The excuses they relied on most often were our attachments or omissions that deviated from the standard of a Dafa practitioner. It so happens that we are practitioners still cultivating ourselves, and we still have many ordinary human attachments. Thus telling people the truth about the persecution became very critical when we faced people who were poisoned by the evil propaganda. Often during this process, our attachments to showing off as well as our competitive mentality was not constrained, but rather inflated. When we were engaged with hectic project schedules and overlooked our Fa study, it resulted in our thoughts and undertakings noticeably deviating from the Fa principles and allowed the evil to exploit that weakness. An ordeal will occur if we also fail to effectively send forth righteous thoughts to eradicate such interference.
We definitely can observe attachments that we overlooked when ordeals occurred. If so then we must earnestly seek from within in order to cultivate ourselves, firmly eradicate these attachments, but never use the excuse of cultivation in Fa rectification to cover up problems (that we should overcome) in personal cultivation. However, our exposed attachments can never be used as an excuse for the evil to persecute us, and we must never have confused thought that enduring such ordeals will help us assimilate to the nature of the universe and advance in our cultivation. As Falun Dafa disciples, our cultivation should gradually remove various attachments until we finally reach the requirement of higher realms. All these things were looked after and guided by Teacher. We will reach consummation as long as we do not deviate from this course. I believe that enduring such imposed ordeals is not the way Teacher had arranged for us, and enduring or suffering the imposed ordeals for the purpose of getting rid of attachments is not the way we should take to better clarify the truth. If not for the persecution arranged by the old forces, our cultivation might not even have included truth clarification.
Some practitioners did not come through amidst various ordeals because they mistakenly treated such ordeals as tribulations to be endured. They failed to rationally and clearheadedly deny the old forces' arrangements from their very root, and they failed to resolutely return to the path of cultivation arranged for us by Teacher. When ordeals took place, when serious tests and an assortment of burdens descended upon us, especially the conscience-stricken remorse of damage that we might have inflicted on Dafa by complying with some ordeals [such as signing agreements to renounce Falun Dafa under pressure], we often would be caught up in a deep resentment about our behavior, or wallow in self pity, or simply think the overall situation could be changed through our individual sacrifices and losses. These are merely using ordinary human notions to face problems in our cultivation. Such undertaking and thoughts actually showed our weakness and floundering, not our resolve and determination. It is muddling through our work instead of being responsible and accountable for Dafa and fellow practitioners. It could only result in our compromise, collaboration, and cooperation with the old forces, creating more excuses for the persecution.
Cultivation practice is most solemn, and everything we do must be based on the Fa principles. If we are merely following our human notions to tell us how to be responsible for the Fa, or appear to be looking within for answers while we are deviating from the Fa principles, we may not find the real attachments that Teacher wanted us to get rid of. We will end up falling into self-blame and regret like everyday people, and falling away from the path arranged by Teacher amidst the ordeals. Fellow practitioners who are currently facing such ordeals, as well as the entire group must seriously pay attention to this issue.